This Most Beautiful Theatre

Meanwhile, being placed in this most beautiful theatre, let us not decline to take a pious delight in the clear and manifest works of God. For, as we have elsewhere observed, though not the chief, it is, in point of order, the first evidence of faith, to remember to which side soever we turn, that all which meets the eye is the work of God, and at the same time to meditate with pious care on the end which God had in view in creating it... Heaven and earth being thus most richly adorned, and copiously supplied with all things, like a large and splendid mansion gorgeously constructed and exquisitely furnished, at length man was made—man, by the beauty of his person and his many noble endowments, the most glorious specimen of the works of God.

~ John Calvin; Institutes; 1.14.20

Continual Transports of Delight

Give me to know that heaven is all love,

   where the eye affects the heart,

     and the continual viewing of thy beauty

     keeps the soul in continual transports

        of delight.

Give me to know that heaven is all peace,

   where error, pride, rebellion, passion

     raise no head.

Give me to know that heaven is all joy,

   the end of believing, fasting, praying,

     mourning, humbling, watching,

        fearing, repining;

And lead me to it soon.

~ Valley of Vision

A Strangely Beautiful Interior

The energy principle had held for all the terms, and I could no longer doubt the mathematical consistency and coherence of the kind of quantum mechanics to which my calculations pointed. At first, I was deeply alarmed. I had the feeling that, through the surface of atomic phenomena, I was looking at a strangely beautiful interior, and felt almost giddy at the thought that I know had to probe this wealth of mathematical structure nature had so generously spread out before me. 

~ Werner Heisenberg; writing about the connection between discovering the nature of quantum reality and its beauty

Compelled to Behold Him

Since the perfection of blessedness consists in the knowledge of God, he has been pleased, in order that none might be excluded from the means of obtaining felicity, not only to deposit in our minds that seed of religion of which we have already spoken, but so to manifest his perfections in the whole structure of the universe, and daily place himself in our view, that we cannot open our eyes without being compelled to behold him. His essence, indeed, is incomprehensible, utterly transcending all human thought; but on each of his works his glory is engraven in characters so bright, so distinct, and so illustrious, that none, however dull and illiterate, can plead ignorance as their excuse.

~ John Calvin; Institutes of the Christian Religion; 1.5.1

Simplicity and Beauty (Part 2)

You can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity.

 ~Richard Feynman

Simplicity and Beauty

You may object that by speaking of simplicity and beauty I am introducing aesthetic criteria of truth, and I frankly admit that I am strongly attracted by the simplicity and beauty of mathematical schemes which nature presents us. You must have felt this too: the almost frightening simplicity and wholeness of the relationship, which nature suddenly spreads out before us. 

~ Werner Heisenberg; Letter to Albert Einstein

The Harmonious Order of its Parts

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it; and he takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing and life would not be worth living…. I mean the intimate beauty which comes from the harmonious order of its parts and which a pure intelligence can grasp. 

~ Henri Poincare